Just set foot on Poni Island with a team of level 42 Pokemon, first trainer has a level 44 and 45 Pokemon, may need to conduct a little training. One thing that did amaze me is that a level 45 Garbodor outsped my Lycanroc, base speed of 75 vs 112, only 2 levels difference between the two as well.

DarkRula wrote:Showdown salt?
I'll give you Showdown salt.
Someone quit on me because I was beating them with a team of Eeveelutions. And they had the more powerful 'mon. It was UU, of course, but they still had a Gyarados among others.

that's not salt the whole point of showdown and PO is to play randbats/challenge cup OR make dumbass teams purely with the purpose of pissing people off, some examples:

In defence of saying gg before its finished, if it's obvious you/they are going to lose you usually have to say it before the end or they just quit before you can say it

Anyway, just finished Moon, loved it. First time the elite four and champion battle have posed any sort of challenge in a long time, probably just because my team had a lot of holes as far as weaknesses went but definitely struggled more than I expected. The final battle music was just phenomenal, that lead in was just wooooooo boy. Ending was too drawn out, some of the credits art did make me smile though. All in all a great step for Pokemon, had a lot more charm than other generations and even though it was still a case of "go here, battle boss, go to next place" the island challenge format spiced it enough that I didn't really notice or care for the most part.
Shame the story kind of just all dropped at once, was hoping that

the Ultra Space would be more of a Distortion World deal than just a single corridor, and they missed a trick in not making you actually fight Ultra Lusamine as a Totem

but all in all it was good stuff, more involving than BW or XY imo.

Ghost wrote:and since when has "being dumb" been a sin on the internet?

All in all a really solid playthrough with a really good team. MVP's were Kyouko and Chitoge for toughing it out for me and dodging the most out of anyone, with Kyouko taking down an unfavourable match up by toughing it out 3 times in a row. Kanan put in crazy work, Liquidation was one shotting anything that wasn't resisted. Rachnera surprisingly put a lot of work in, dodging an super effective move twice in a row to take out an opponent with Cross Poison, and Sucker Punch was irreplaceable as the only priority move on the team. Tsukuyo played her part in taking out the flying liverpool tart, as she outsped Misaka allowing her to get off super effective Ice Beams against the enemies, something Misaka couldn't really do with her eton mess speed. Misaka still played a crucial part in taking down threats such as Skarmory, as well as dealing the finishing blow against Snorlax to take the title thanks to her tanking body slams like a champ. Chitoge's insane speed allowed me to take out stuff like Sableye, which was really nice.

Honourable mention goes to Papi/Toucannon for carrying me through the first island of the game. Without her, I wouldn't have been able to progress my team to where it is now, and would have been stuck at the first island for a long time. Shame that she wasn't there for the final fight, but Kyouko carried on her legacy of sweeping Hala's entire team.

All in all, really enjoyed this game. I think I actually preferred it over the standard gym runs. It felt like there was just more variety to it all, and in addition the locations were superb and the characters were really well designed. A huge improvement over X and Y, probably the best Pokemon game since Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald not including remakes.

Garf wrote:whoever decided Festival Plaza was a better idea than the PSS needs to be sacked immediately

Could not agree more.

<Kaeetayel> Go for a team entirely composed of Eeveelutions
<Princess> that's effort
<Princess> I need to buy the stones/go to rocks/make them happy/touch Eevee
<Kaeetayel> The last one doesn't sound too bad

instead of being able to see if a friend is online as you play the game, then just jump right into a battle, you have to go through a loading screen, connect to the internet and then search through a player list to find your friend

I like the whole 'upgrade your plaza to get better stalls' aspect, but god damn could they just make a reduced version available on the bottom screen

but then again this is game freak and keeping good design ideas for future titles goes against literally everything they believe in

instead of being able to see if a friend is online as you play the game, then just jump right into a battle, you have to go through a loading screen, connect to the internet and then search through a player list to find your friend

I like the whole 'upgrade your plaza to get better stalls' aspect, but god damn could they just make a reduced version available on the bottom screen

but then again this is game freak and keeping good design ideas for future titles goes against literally everything they believe in

the plaza upgrade thing makes it worth the decrease in speed.

once you load in once and connect once you can trade/battle as many times as you want consecutively so it's not really an issue in the long run. It's like 30 seconds extra initial wait time.

I'll take an extra 30 seconds for the opportunity to get free master balls/gold bottlecaps/instant max EVs/more EV manipulation/other cool eton mess every few days.

I've heard that the Festival Plaza is a way to try and get around the Nintendo Switch having only one screen, and if they are indeed making a third version for the Switch then they can't really do the same two screen approach that Gen VI had going on.

Then again, this is Game Freak who seem to like to switch up how the bottom screen is used every Gen.

<Kaeetayel> Go for a team entirely composed of Eeveelutions
<Princess> that's effort
<Princess> I need to buy the stones/go to rocks/make them happy/touch Eevee
<Kaeetayel> The last one doesn't sound too bad

Putting the menu on the bottom screen was pretty neat, HG/SS blew their Poketch companions out of the water in terms of using the bottom screen. Gen V and VI using it as a communication interface was pretty handy though, I know Sun/Moon have a Quick Link option but that's only really good for local multiplayer.

Managed to beat the Singles mode in Battle Tree by getting to the 20th fight and winning it. Unlocked Super Singles as a result. The Mareanie that I left in Poke Pelago for EV training has finished that and is now a Level 50 Toxapex which is also going to be added to the pool of Pokemon used for the Battle Tree.

The basic idea is to always make sure lycanrock gets rocks up because the battle tree loves focus sash/sturdy shenanigans. Also helps make sure things go down. Lele and Kartana are the heavy hitters, each with a z-crystal in case a big threat needs to be nuked. Lycan can also do some damage, but he's mainly there for the rocks. Overall the type coverage gets everything except very specific builds like a Gengar with hypnosis, a speedy Drapion or a speedy Escavalier. Detect is there specifically to stall out trick rooms/weather as well as make Slaking completely useless, as the Slaking in the battle tree is a big threat to the team otherwise due to no fighting coverage and Slaking's ridiculous stats. These guys have done very well for me so far, but I'm interested if anyone has any better options.

Finally found some time to put some more time into Pokémon Moon and I'm sadly nearing the end of the main game, just caught Lunala and now I'm at the league. Best place to train pre league still Vast Poni Canyon? Pokémon near the league don't seem to give that much experience as Snorunt seems to have a high encounter rate, hoping to get my team all up to level 55 before attempting the league reckon I'd have a decent shot at beating it.